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War of Tulunese Succession
The 'War of Tulunese Succession '(4E20-4E21), known otherwise as the Breaking of Glenpoint, was an armed conflict fought primarily by the Kingdom of Daggerfall and the Barony of Glenpoint. Like many an Iliac war before, it was brief, sincere, and brutally violent - concluding with Daggerfall's triumph, and the utter dissolution of the Barony of Glenpoint. The War's end marked a conclusion to the haphazard chaos of the Greater Betony Campaigns, ushering in a new era of unchecked Daggerfallian hegemony over the West. __FORCETOC__ Prelude In 4E20, the ruling Baron of Tulune, Archebald Talvier, finally succumbed to the illness that had plagued him throughout all the many twilight years of his life. Unfortunately, the late baron's only heritage were bitter memories of a long and ultimately fruitless marriage; of his four children, one had been stillborn, two - lost to the wars and skirmishes of the Warped Years and the Oblivion Crisis, and the last was an inconvenience, too young to be of significance and too old to reliably manipulate. Within weeks, no less than three cadet branches of the baronial house were up in arms, sweeping the heritor aside (dead at the hand of a renegade nightblade) to assure all who cared to listen of the legitimacy of their own claims to the baronial throne. To make matters worse, much of the Tulunese nobility - long infamous for its stubborn assertions and reassertions of independence from the ruling lords of Tulune - refused to take sides altogether; instead, a great many petty candidacies were raised, claiming right to rule through ability, wealth, and obscure familial ties to the late baron alike. With the succession dispute arrived at an impasse, and with the first confrontations and skirmishes beginning to flare up across the barony, matters seemed set to spiral quickly out of control. Yet with countless aristocratic factions starting to rally their banners and call upon their allies and patrons for aid, one of the rogue Tulunese nobles would stumble - entirely by accident - into an unlikely peaceful solution. When a petty local baron appeared before his mighty Daggerfallian sovereign to plead for support, he dangled before the Archduke Beowen a bait that would come to consume the great lord's every waking hour; how, ''how ''to swallow up a whole realm, already well within reach, with so weak a claim? In the end, the answer proved simple - and the Archduke followed his vassal's lead, and walked the long walk to the court of Tulune's nominal lord and protector, King Camaron Thagor. It wouldn't take much persuading to make the Royal Court realize how sound, valid and noble a case could be made here. King Camaron had inherited rule over the West from his esteemed father, Gothryd; and was it not the monarch's duty to ensure their lands and subjects did not needlessly suffer? Gothryd himself had set the precedent his son would now follow. And as for the barons and lordlings of Tulune, well - many of their number had long sought Daggerfallian patronage; the notion of cutting out the middle-man, as it were, to become direct royal subjects did not sound at all unappealing. The only scrib in the egg-crate, then, was the ruling Baron of Glenpoint, Percival Morwig. Hearing word of the Tulunese delegation received in Daggerfall in a charmingly stylized appeal for royal protection, Percival was quick to issue threats most bold - he would rather see war than let Tulune be dismantled, and if Camaron did not step down, then war it would be. Perhaps his hope had been to reenact that same dance of political posturing the West had long practiced; threats of escalation and war followed by negotiation, and a final and mutually beneficial compromise. If that were indeed the case, then the baron would be sorely disappointed. In lieu of a response, Camaron Thagor extended his unruly 'vassal' an invitation to attend the king's coronation as Baron of Tulune. And so - with Camaron surprisingly unyielding in his stance, and with Percival backed into a diplomatic corner - the War of Tulunese Succession began on the 2nd of Hearthfire, 4E20, when Glenpoint's baronial banners crossed the border with Tulune to besiege the eastern Tulunese castle of Lambrugh. Campaigns in Tulune (Autumn of 4E20) The war opened to the Siege of Castle Lambrugh, Percival's forces scrambling to make a quick and determined push deep into Tulune in a bid to discourage Daggerfall from committing. Unfortunately, the baron's hopes were quickly and irrevocably dashed. Barely had the Glenpointers finished encircling Lambrugh when rumours were already spreading of a massing Daggerfallian host - assembled with such unlikely haste that most onlookers could not but conclude that war had certainly been expected, if not hoped for. Rather than withdraw, or dally at Lambrugh and allow Daggerfall time to join up with the disparate Tulunese banners, the baron elected instead to continue with his hyperaggressive strategy. Within a few days, the siege had been largely abandoned, leaving only a skeleton crew to man the ramshackle fortifications erected around Lambrugh; the bulk of Glenpoint's forces, meanwhile, pushed onwards. In the destructive fashion typical of advancing armies in Bretic wars - razing most any villages or minor fortifications in their way - the Glenpointers made for the capital city of Tulune. A hasty alliance of Tulunese barons met Percival near the town of Kirkborne, and an indecisive battle ensued; in the aftermath, however, the petty aristocrats of Tulune found themselves outmanoeuvred, and were forced to continue their fighting retreat down the road towards the capital. And yet, for all the baron's haste, he would still be beaten to Tulune by the Daggerfallians. On the 29th of Hearthfire, Lord-Marcher Samuel Bridwell led a sizable force through the southern gates of the city, and the stage was set for the events of Frostfall. Quickly marching out to reinforce the withdrawing Tulunese, the Daggerfallians fought Percival to a standstill in the Battles of Chardony and Grunwych - and with the last of his hopes for a swift victory laid to rest, the baron could do little else but sound the retreat. Hounded by Bridwell's chevaliers on the road back, the Glenpointers attempted to delay their enemy outside Kirkborne; however, the Second Battle of Kirkborne proved a resounding defeat as the Lord-Marcher scattered the baronial rearguard, and continued his pursuit. His gambit failed and Tulune largely lost, the baron made a last-ditch effort to turn the tide outside Castle Lambrugh. The battle that followed proved a Glenpointer victory, but it was hollow - with the losses he had inflicted upon the enemy, Samuel Bridwell could afford to withdraw from the field, safe in the knowledge that Percival would not have the means to push his momentary advantage. And though the Siege of Lambrugh was not lifted - a few disjointed skirmishes proving the strength of the Glenpointers' entrenchments, - Glenpoint had been well and truly forced on the defensive. Push for Glenpoint (Winter of 4E20 - Spring of 4E21) With Percival's advance into Tulune checked and overturned, the Glenpointer war effort looked to be in dire straits. While the baron wasted time obsessing over desperate strategies to revive his stalled offensive, King Camaron's royal banners were already crossing the southern border into Glenpoint. On the 11th of Evening Star, a number of the infamous rover lords met the king outside Castle Sturmwuld - not to do battle, but to hand the fortress over, and so pledge their allegiance to Daggerfall. As the border glens buckled and the south of Glenpoint burned, Percival was forced to abandon his campaign in Tulune and rush to the defense of his lands. Joined on the way by Lord-Marcher Bridwell - who had departed from Tulune days before the treachery at Sturmwuld, - the Daggerfallians continued their northwards march. Though it seemed urgently clear that they were set on nothing less than the capital city of Glenpoint itself, the advancing banners met with little resistance; there was no force south of the fortified market-town of Fontfort large enough to oppose them, and no able leaders besides. Finally, and without a single serious challenge yet faced, or one real battle yet fought, Camaron and Bridwell arrived at the citadel of Cathwood. By the time the bulk of Glenpoint's forces finally mustered at Cathwood on the 31st of Morning Star, 4E21, the castle was already three days fallen. Too late to relieve the siege, and acutely aware he had markedly less room for manoeuvres than the invaders, Baron Percival instead elected to challenge the Daggerfallian host on the field. The enemy, however, seemed reluctant to commit, and a protracted period of indecisive skirmishing followed as the two armies attempted to check one another's advances. At long last, the baron seized upon a minor scuffle between two scouting parties to force an engagement - and in the Battle of Cathwood that followed, Daggerfall carried the day. Percival, however, was not about to admit defeat. With a portion of his army still intact, and with reinforcements slowly trickling in from the farther reaches of Glenpoint, he rushed a fighting retreat towards nearby Fontfort. With Lord-Marcher Bridwell loathe to risk disproportionate casualties in a direct assault, both sides settled in for the long haul. And though scattered bands of Glenpointer troops would make several half-hearted attempts to relieve the town, or to break through inside, all were repulsed, and the baron remained trapped within. The Moors Offensive (Spring of 4E21) Meanwhile, with Glenpoint's chances of victory firmly in the gutter, and with the bulk of its forces bogged down south around Fontfort, many of the neighbouring princes were finally starting to rattle their swords and raise their banners. Earlier in the year, and during the Tulunese campaigns as well, Percival's northern lands had already suffered through several minor raids and assaults by the Moorer nobility; now, with retribution or spirited resistance looking all but impossible, the ruling lords were starting to remember their feudal duties to the King of the West. By the end of First Seed, Baron Damren Tawle of Glenumbra was up in arms, and the nobles of Northmoor and Anticlere looked set to follow. Despite an utter lack of support from the south, and no word from their baron, the northern Glennish nobility made a number of efforts to halt the Glenumbran advance. In Tulune, the siege of Castle Lambrugh was finally broken off, the soldiers there engaged marching to meet with the bulk of Damren's banners; all in vain. On the 25th of First Seed, the Moorers smashed Glenpoint's ramshackle defense in the disastrous Battle of Flowers. In the aftermath, and virtually unopposed, they set about pillaging the northern countryside, razing several border fortresses and a number of nearby hamlets. With the Battle of Flowers, Glenpoint's doom looked to be sealed. Daggerfall was pulling no punches, and the western lords realized as much - and scrambled to make the best of it, carving up whatever parts of the barony they yet might. Indeed, the only man still blind to his realm's impending demise seemed to be Baron Percival Morwig himself; the first mutters of compromise, of surrender among the defenders of Fontfort were put down with his characteristic ferocity, and the siege dragged on. But with the baron cooped up within a town's walls, and with five warbanners of Daggerfallian chevaliers separating him from the rest of his subjects, moods in the baronial capital were approaching a breaking point. Siege of Glenpoint (Summer of 4E21) That year's summer found Glenpoint in dire straits. After the Moors offensive scattered the last major Glennish force in the north, the Tulunese pushed back - mounting an assault past Lambrugh and deep into the barony's heart. By late Mid Year, the city of Glenpoint itself had been surrounded; and though its stores were deep, and it may have held out many a long month under siege, there was little left here in the way of a will to keep fighting. Conferring briefly among themselves, the city council elected to lay down arms and open the gates to the besieging Tulunese. Rumbles of Glenpoint's surrender would soon reach the defenders in Fontfort - and not without help from Daggerfall. Already uneasy after Percival's brutally straightforward refusal to treat with the attackers, the nobles within the baronial host rose up in open revolt, and demanded the baron either negotiate, or step down. Within hours, the streets of Fontfort were in turmoil as the dissenters clashed with Percival's own knights; in the ensuing chaos, the town almost fell to a surprise Daggerfallian assault, and by the time the dust finally settled, two of the wall-towers had been lost, rendering the walls all but indefensible. Though he managed to restore a modicum of order to his army, even Percival could no longer deny that his back was well and truly against the wall. With his banners divided and demoralized, and with most his nobility prepared to betray him to the King of Daggerfall for the slightest concessions, the war was lost. After one last week's posturing and humiliated negotiations, the Treaty of Fontfort was signed on the 9th of Sun's Height, concluding the War of Tulunese Succession. Aftermath The Treaty of Fontfort stripped the Morwigs of any and all titles and lands - leaving King Camaron free to assume the baronial throne of Glenpoint. Territorially, the Barony of Glenpoint was no more; much like Tulune, it was quickly absorbed by the Kingdom of Daggerfall, and divided up between local collaborators and foreign nobles alike. Even the Baronial March was disbanded, its delegates made subordinate to the Royal Estates of Daggerfall. Percival, his wife, and their three children were all exiled, confined to the isle of Betony. The once-baron himself would die there three years later; some suspect, of poisoning, though the baroness-widower maintains he simply "wasted away" after the war. Throughout all his three years in exile, Percival had been allowed to leave Betony only once - to attend Camaron's acclamation as the Baron of Tulune. It was not a title the king would long retain, soon passing much of the formerly independent realm on to the war's original instigators, Archducal House Beowen. Following Daggerfall's victory in the war, it was left in undisputed control of the West. Of the neighbouring western lordships, only Glenumbra and Shalgora now retained their territorial integrity - and Glenumbra's would not survive the next year, the barons' authority giving way to the King of the West after the Voiceless Moorstag of 4E22. Category:Lore Category:Daggerfall Category:Glenpoint Category:Tulune